


Let’s Have One Day Together

by terramous



Series: Bad Things Happen Bingo [5]
Category: 9-1-1: Lone Star (TV 2020)
Genre: Firefighter Carlos Reyes, M/M, Paramedic TK Strand
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-15
Updated: 2020-07-15
Packaged: 2021-03-05 01:01:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,904
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25285789
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/terramous/pseuds/terramous
Summary: “You alright there, Reyes?”Carlos looked up from the spot on the ground his eyes had been fixated on for the better part of five minutes, to meet TK’s questioning gaze.“Yeah, I’m good,” he lied.
Relationships: Carlos Reyes/TK Strand
Series: Bad Things Happen Bingo [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1775494
Comments: 13
Kudos: 194
Collections: 9-1-1 Lone Star ▶ Carlos Reyes / Tyler Kennedy "TK" Strand





	Let’s Have One Day Together

**Author's Note:**

> back with part two of the paramedic!tk au. albeit a little late
> 
> bad things happen bingo: chronic pain
> 
> anonymous requested: For the bad things that happen bingo, could you please do Carlos suffering from chronic pain and maybe have TK taking care of him???

“You alright there, Reyes?”

Carlos looked up from the spot on the ground his eyes had been fixated on for the better part of five minutes, to meet TK’s questioning gaze. 

“Yeah, I’m good,” he lied as he continued trying to massage the discomfort out of his shoulder. It wasn’t anything dramatic, just a lingering tightness grating against his nerves. 

TK didn’t look convinced. He raised his eyebrow as he crossed his arms and ankles to lean against the ambulance, eyeing Carlos suspiciously. “Do you want to try that one again?” 

It’d been a long day, despite them only having been on shift for a few hours. 

A car crash, a three-car collision with a few serious injuries but no fatalities. A house fire, no injuries but an extensive amount of property damage that took a few hours to completely put out. Even a teenager stuck in a tree. He’d been up there all night, too scared of heights to jump down until a morning jogger passed by and called for help, unfortunately the kid fell out of the tree and ended up with what TK was certain was a broken wrist. 

So the uncomfortable tightness that began at the scene of the car accident, was definitely beginning to be more and more of a distraction. Carlos had become accustomed to flare ups of pain in his shoulder over the past few months. 

Usually knocking back a few ibuprofen took at least the edge off, if not completely nullified the pain. He didn’t get that lucky today. No, it seemed as if his luck had run dry as the ache and twinge of his muscles continued to worsen.

Carlos had been with the 126 for a month now. He’d quickly found his place in the menagerie that was his new family. Routinely, he and Paul would bustle around the kitchen together, Marjan would tease him like an older sister and Mateo often found himself subjected to a loving ruffle of his hair. He was completely jaded to Michelle mothering him by now, but nothing could have prepared him for Owen Strand. 

Both Michelle and TK had warned him about the Captain’s tendency to dote on everyone as if they were all his kids. There were no horror stories that fully encapsulated the experience of the captain’s borderline overbearing fussing.

The first instance of Mother-Hen-Owen that Carlos experienced was the captain dropping by the hospital the morning following the crash. After getting eleven stitches in his thigh, spending hours trying to get comfortable in a sling and being kept for observation of a potential head injury, Carlos wanted nothing more than to go home and sleep for a week. Everything hurt and he wasn’t even allowed to look at his phone.

When Michelle had come to pick him up, he had not anticipated her guest. Where Michelle had changed out of her uniform and into the comfiest looking hoodie, the captain was still in his uniform, looking polished and important. And asking Carlos a bunch of questions that he would have expected from Michelle, everything from “how are you feeling?” to “how many stitches did you get?”. 

The second, and hopefully last, time being when Carlos managed to trip over his own feet and face plant directly into the ground. Much to everyone’s amusement, Owen asked him every shift, without fail, for a week, if his nose was okay. 

With every slight change in anyone’s demeanor, he was there, making sure all was well. Carlos couldn’t count on all his fingers and toes the amount of times the captain had pulled one of them aside to check if everything was okay. 

TK was like that too, but he tried to hide it. He tended to be less upfront about it than his father at times, masking his concern with a professional attitude. But he was also unbelievably careful and considerate with every member of the team, behind the facade was someone who cared about them all. 

He just didn’t show it the same way.

“No, really, I’m good,” Carlos said, smiling up at TK. He didn’t miss the way TK swiftly broke their eye contact, muttering something under his breath.

“If you say so.”

🚑

With a warm fondness in his chest, Carlos looked over to the bustling activity around the dining table. 

Secretly, Carlos was grateful that he had been able to skip on the last call since he was on lunch duty. With all the grief his shoulder had been giving him, being able to rest it almost entirely as he cooked was refreshing.

Everyone else, however, was riding out their adrenaline crashes while he was left to witness the phenomena. It was something he hadn’t really noticed before, usually too preoccupied with the idea of getting home and to his bed at the end of shift. But now he could see the rate at which everyone was coming back to earth.

Captain Strand was already seated, as was Judd. They both looked moments away from scolding the others. Mateo swayed on his feet ever so slightly, as Marjan avidly talked his ear off.

TK and Nancy appeared to be locked in an intense battle of rock paper scissors that kept tieing. Eventually a cheer and laughter broke the air as TK bounced on the balls of his feet. 

“I’ll hold this grudge for the rest of my life, Strand,” Nancy deadpanned, clearly struggling to maintain a neutral expression as her lips curled.

“All’s fair in love and paper scissors rock, Gillian.” TK winked, poking his tongue out at the other paramedic. “Get going, the ambulance isn’t going to restock itself. Don’t worry, I’ll save you a plate.”

TK certainly seemed to be in a better mood now than he was when he and Carlos spoke earlier. But Carlos tried not to dwell on it.

TK Strand already occupied a little too much of Carlos’ thoughts for his comfort. 

Paul was already in the kitchen, setting out a bunch of plates on the counter, as Michelle sauntered over with what Carlos recognised as an evil glint in her eye.

“Why do you have that look on your face?” Carlos asked, casting Paul a brief glance to make sure that the other firefighter didn’t need his help.

Michelle blinked owlishly as she feigned innocence. “What look?”

“The same look you have every time you announce that you’ve found me a potential suitor.” Carlos paused to look at Michelle with a little more caution. “You’re not setting me up again, are you?”

“What? Of course not! I’m still hoping you’ll put on your big boy pants and ask our mutual friend out.”

“I’m with Michelle,” Paul quipped out of nowhere, causing Carlos to jump a little. “Ask TK out.”

Carlos whirled and quickly clamped a hand over Paul’s mouth. 

“Keep it down,” he hissed. “He’s literally across the room. And so is his dad. How did you find out about that anyway?”

“Incredible powers of perception, remember? Plus, you’re about as subtle as a giraffe in tap shoes. Maybe if you stopped gawking at the man every time he’s in the vicinity, it would be less obvious,” Paul chided, turning his attention back to the food.

“Go sit down, chica. You’ve tormented me enough for now. Paul and I are just finishing up so you can tell Judd he doesn’t have to start deducing who on the team would make a good meal.”

Michelle raised her hands in surrender as she backed towards the dining area. “Okay, okay. I’m going.”

Carlos shook his head, laughing softly at his friend as he grabbed a few full plates and began moving toward the table. 

Of course, the good moments could never last.

It took all of Carlos’ concentration to not drop the steaming plates in his hands. The moderate aching and tightness that he had been pushing through all day, had come to a head. In rapid-fire the muscles in his shoulder squeezed and released. If not for the amount of people in the room to bear witness, Carlos would’ve cried, or yelled, or both. Instead, he just bit down on his bottom lip to stifle any noise he did make.

Thankfully, Marjan was walking past him to get to the table at this moment.

“Marjan,” Carlos grit out between clenched teeth. She stopped walking and eyed him curiously. “Can you please take these?” he pointedly looked at the plates in his hands.

She took them with no argument, her gaze quickly sweeping over him.

He didn’t have much time to worry about pretending to be okay for her. He was on the ground in moments, his knees pulled close to his chest as he tried to breathe through the pain. The rapid tensing and releasing of the muscles in his shoulder brought tears to his eyes, leaking out past his tightly scrunched eyes.

“Reyes!” he heard someone shout, maybe Judd, but it felt too far off in the distance. The table was only a few feet across the room but the voice sounded further away.

“Carlos,” he’d know that voice anywhere, it was right next to his head seemingly in an instant. “What’s wrong?”

He was too preoccupied trying to remember how to inhale and exhale, willing the pain to subside. Even if he wanted to, he couldn’t find the words to respond to TK.

“Where does it hurt?”

Carlos just shook his head. The pain consumed his thoughts, aside from TK’s voice hovering next to him, it was all he knew.

“Carlos, you gotta talk to me. I can help if I know what’s wrong,” TK explained, his voice soft and close. Carlos could almost feel TK’s breath against his neck. “Can you look at me, Carlos?”

There was a hand in his hair and Michelle’s soft voice in his ear. “Can you tell us what’s wrong so we can help?” 

Belatedly, Carlos wondered how bad he looked to warrant two paramedics perched on either side of him. 

TK was the next to speak, “Is it your shoulder?”

The pain cleared enough for Carlos to form something coherent, “Yeah.”

“Can you stand?”

Carlos swallowed the urge to break, he couldn’t just kneel there and wait for someone else to fix everything. He had to let TK and Michelle help him. He couldn’t do this by himself.

So he pulled his head up to meet TK’s gaze. Anxious green eyes scanned his face, TK’s eyebrows pinched together in concern and focus.

Carlos nodded, not trusting his voice.

“Alright.” TK’s grip was firm on Carlos’ good arm, supporting him as TK pulled him up. Carlos was reminded of how gentle TK’s touch had been on the night they met. TK’s fingers had grazed him with the same tenderness that one would use to cradle a flower’s petals. 

But right now, TK seized Carlos with a strength the firefighter had not expected him capable of as he supported Carlos’ weight. As his legs shook under his weight, a pressing threat to give way, TK’s hold was nothing short of essential. 

“Come on,” TK said as he guided Carlos away from half a dozen lingering gazes and into the common area and, more importantly, the couch. 

“I can handle him, Cap,” TK assured Michelle over Carlos’ shoulder with a smile. 

Setting Carlos down on the couch carefully as to not jostle his shoulder, TK spoke, “Has this happened before?”

“It flares up from time to time. Never this bad though,” Carlos explained. 

Clearly, that was not the answer TK wanted, his eyebrows knit together as he pressed his lips into a tight line. “Have you mentioned this to your doctor? Got meds for it?”

“Nope.”

“Carlos.” TK pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed deeply. “If your stupidity doesn’t kill you, I will.”

“It’s not my fault,” Carlos objected.

“I know it’s not. Wait here.” 

TK disappeared only for a few moments before returning weilding a small orange pill bottle and shaking it in triumph. “I got you the good stuff.” His eyes lingered on the pill bottle for a few moments, an indescribable look crossing his features before disappearing just as quickly as it appeared.

“Open,” TK instructs, his tone cool and even as he tips a few pills into his hand. 

“You don’t have to do everything for me, TK. I’m a grown man.”

TK was unfazed by Carlos’ protests. His voice was firm when he spoke again, leaving no room for argument. “Open.”

Reluctantly, Carlos unhinged his jaw. 

TK hummed in triumph, slotting the pills on Carlos’ tongue, quickly followed by pressing the cold rim of a glass to his lips. “Drink.”

Carlos obeyed without a fight this time.

“You know, you’d make a good dog. Very obedient.”

“I hate you.”

“No, you don’t,” TK stated as he rearranged the cushions around Carlos. “Lie down.” 

Awkwardly shifting his body with the aid of TK’s careful touch, Carlos whispered a quiet “thank you” while trying to hide his blush from their new proximity to each other.

“Of course.” TK seemed to pull a heat pack out of thin air, nestling it against the crook of Carlos’ neck. The warmth seeping into his muscles almost instantly took the edge off of the pain. “You know it’s okay to need help, right?” 

There was a softness to everything about TK Strand, it was something Carlos had noticed from the beginning. The way warmth soaked into his touch, the light way he spoke, the emotions in his eyes that he couldn’t mask. Even when he was away from TK, Carlos could never get him out of his head.

Despite the amount of time Carlos spent thinking about TK, he never knew what to say to the paramedic.

TK shrugged off the lack of response. “Carlos, you don’t have to do everything yourself. Jeez, you can’t even move your arm but you still tried to insist you’re fine.”

“Not that you listened to me,” Carlos huffed.

TK rolled his eyes, sitting on the floor next to Carlos’ head and pulling his knees up to his chin. “That’s because I have common sense.”

“I’m fine.”

“You will be once those meds kick in.”

“How long will that be? I need to get back to work.”

“No, you don’t. I’ll get you the afternoon off, you need to rest, and I’m very good at convincing the captain.”

“I can’t imagine why.”

TK shrugged. “Probably because I’m very funny and also incredibly handsome.”

“I’m not sure that’s the reason.”

“Just take it easy, okay? Get some rest, we’ll survive being a man down for a few hours.”

“I’d rather be out there with you guys.”

“Why don’t you want to accept that you’re still hurt?” TK wasn’t judging him, the paramedic’s eyes were soft, his eyebrows pinched together, as he waited for his answer.

“Why are you so nice about this?”

“I had my own stint of not wanting to let anyone help me. But I needed it, and I wouldn’t be here if not for my dad’s unwillingness to give up on me. Don’t be afraid to ask for help if you need it, there’s no shame in not being able to shoulder it all.”

“But I’m supposed to be healed. It’s been months, why does it still hurt?” Carlos knew that TK didn’t have the answers to all of his questions, but it still brought him comfort to ask.

TK’s gaze softened at the query. “The human body is messed up; babies can regrow the tips of fingers and toes, but I sprained my ankle in seventh grade and it’s never been the same.”

They both laughed a little. Carlos could very easily get used to the sight of TK smiling, of the airy sound of his laughter.

Their privacy was quickly disturbed by a cheerful energy only the captain could manage. “Feeling better, Reyes?”

Carlos groaned internally. He’d forgotten that the entire firehouse had witnessed his meltdown. He’d probably ruined lunch as well as forced TK to skip it. 

“Yeah, I can get on next call with you guys-“

“No, he can’t,” TK cut him off. “Give him the afternoon to rest, if not just send him home. His shoulder has been bugging him all day and he didn’t say anything.”

Carlos glared at TK. “Traitor.”

“You gotta take care of yourself, kid,” Owen offered in his fatherly tone as opposed to his captain’s tone. Where the captain tone left no room for argument, this one offered sympathy.

“But I’m fine-“

“No, you’re not. And that’s okay.”

“Gotta have you in peak physical condition out in the field. And if I didn’t listen to the paramedic telling me you shouldn’t be leaving the couch any time soon, that’d be a bad look for me.”

“It’s just chronic pain. It’s not like I’m dying.”

“Pain is pain,” TK chided. 

“As much as I hate to admit it, TK is right. Take it easy, we’ll be fine.”

As if on cue, the all too familiar alarm rang throughout the firehouse. 

TK already had a hand on Carlos’ shoulder, preventing him from even trying to get up. “Stay put. Get some rest. We’ll be fine.”

After fluffing Carlos’ hair a little, TK and his father were gone. So Carlos did what he was told, and wriggled around until he was comfortable, closing his eyes and dozing off to the sound of the bustling firehouse.

**Author's Note:**

> title from: asbury - grayscale


End file.
